Vonn New: Musings

My latest project is a trio I'm been playing in with Lorah Yaccarino, who plays 12-string electric & acoustic guitars, and Michael Mulvey, who plays electric bass. In this band, I play psaltery (that would be, electrified psaltery, percussion and spoken word. The sound of Hemingway's Cat is very different from my solo sound - more groove oriented and structured - but I think you'll like it! I met Lorah at the first Deep Listening retreat I attended and we've done some other collaborations as a duo. Michael and Lorah used to play together in Ritual Motion. It's been a very rich experience to combine our various creative ideas and influences into a cohesive sound.

We don't have a website or CD out yet, because we've been busy working up all original music. The rest will be coming soon. In the meantime, the only way to hear us is to come out to our first show, at the Woodstock Mothership in Woodstock NY. Thursday March 26, at 8:00. I'm so excited to be playing this new music live!

My piece Vespers has been accepted for inclusion in the Women's Electro-Acoustic Listening Room on March 21st, 2009 from 9AM to 3PM in Recital Hall, Cal State Fullerton, in Fullerton, CA.


The 8th Annual New Music Festival, March 18th-21st: The Composer-Performer in the 21st Century features guest artists in residence: Anne LaBerge, Jane Rigler, Lydia Ayers, flute/composer/electronics, creative flutist/improviser Nicole Mitchell with our Jazz Ensembles, and composer/performer Paul Dresher with percussionist Joel Davel, pianist Lisa Moore and violinist Karen Bentley Pollick.


Organized by Dr Pamela Madsen, this year’s Listening Room project is part of a Composer/Performer Symposium on Saturday, March 21st, 2009 that will feature paper presentations by guest lecturers, listening room, lecture-demonstration by flutists/composers Anne LaBerge, Jane Rigler and Lydia Ayers and lecture-panel discussion with guest artists.

The Listening Room will feature work by 54 different women composers working in electroacoustic music! If you are in southern California that weekend, go and listen to this selection of cutting-edge art. My piece will be played a few minutes after 1:00 p.m..

Everybody's struggling in this economy, right? I've been reflecting on how to survive financially while continuing to make art. My artistic process is one of following the muse, without regard to the commercial viability of any project. I'm committed to continuing to make my art this way. But, how to pay the rent and put vegies on the table? Today, I'm rolling out new website that will feature my skills in website design and audio services:
www.vnew-tech.com.

Please take a look at the site and hire me to do some work! Send my link to your friends who might need my services. Help an artist stay out of a cubicle!!!

My article, A Theology of Muse has been published in this month's edition of Spark, the newsmagazine for New York Yearly Meeting (a Quaker organization). In the article, I illustrate how my experience of artistic creativity has informed my spiritual development and vice versa.

When we notice a Divine Spark in ourselves and others...


When we hear Truth underneath words we disagree with...


When we find beauty in unexpected places...


We are Listening in Tongues.

This CD is the result of a spiritual quest to listen deeply and respond faithfully to the promptings of the spirit. This quest has taken me into diverse territories that don't always fit any particular musical genre or even a single definition of what music is.


On this CD you will hear everything from quena (a notch-blown bamboo flute), frogs, and drums, to air conditioners and amateur astronomers making their own telescopes.



Play List (click to listen):

Spirals

Bells Cry Bells

Vespers

Hudson River Dance

Metamorphosis

Dreaming in the Proximity of Mars: The Power to Heal

Stargrind

Backyard Cooling

"Experimental music for experimental people."

One of the tracks from my new CD Listening in Tongues was recently featured on fmbrussel98.9 radio in Brussels, Belgium. You can listen to the program, Sounds & Emotions here! After you follow the link, click the red speaker on the right to listen.

Click here to listen to Stargrind.

In St Petersburg Florida, there is a group of amateur astronomers, who make their own telescopes. They start with big, thick circles of glass and grind them down by hand using ceramic tiles, water and increasingly fine grades of grit. After hundreds of hours, they have a very precise concave surface which they coat with a thin layer of aluminum. This becomes the magnifying mirror that is the heart of the telescope. When I first heard about this in the spring of 2005, I was captured by concept that in order to view the vast interstellar galaxy, these people had to manipulate the tiniest particles of glass. Metaphysically, It struck me as a process parallel to the meditative practice of finding cosmic awareness by going inward ever more deeply. I was impressed by the physical discipline and the repetition required reminded me of some movement meditations. Then the question struck me: "I wonder what it sounds like!?"

I showed up during one of their Saturday morning grinding sessions and made some field recordings which I incorporated into the intergalactic musical journey "Stargrind". I wrote this piece in the spring of 2005. During a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in June & July of that year, I collaborated with Diana Slattery who created a live video performance to go with the music. With the help of Pauline Oliveros, I adapted the piece for 8 channel surround sound spatialization. Diana & I performed it in an immersive dome theater environment at ACA.

Stargrind is one of the tracks on my new CD, Listening in Tongues. Instrumentation is field recordings of the Telescope Lab, Audiomulch and recorder.

Click here to listen to Vespers, a new piece of music that will be on my impending CD, Listening in Tongues.

The instrumentation in Vespers is Audiomulch, wooden frogs, a bird call, clacker, djembe, recorder, and field recordings of frogs, crickets, a woodland stream, bats, the Pacific Ocean surf at Sunset Beach in Watsonville, CA, and a variety of birds.

Thanks to Dr Robert Suter for his photo and recording of tree frogs and for helping me record the bats.

Click here to listen.

In memory of Jon Van Gough

Today, when you cried
your tears fell onto a chrysallis
and my cocoon softened
and I burst out
a bit too soon.

My wings are mostly formed,
but not yet ready to harden.
So I flutter to the ground,
helplessly vulnerable but
brilliantly colored...

on the verge of flight.


Poem and music from my impending CD, "Listening in Tongues". Watch here for release information soon.
(c) 2008, C. Vonn New

Photo by Caterina De Re

This past weekend, I attended a training session for the newly formed Quaker Quest Traveling Team. Quaker Quest is a program that started in Britain a few years ago and is getting going here in North America under the leadership of Friends General Conference. It is designed to revitalize Quaker Meetings by helping Friends speak more authentically about our spiritual experience and communicate in ways that make sense to people who are seeking a spiritual path today. We are quaint and hip at the same time!


It was a real joy to be in the company of this group of deep, gifted Friends. I enjoyed springtime in Chicago, our stay at the Cenacle Conference and Retreat Center and exploring the sites at nearby Lincoln Park, including the Butterfly Haven at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, the Lincoln Park Zoo, and of course, Lake Michigan!

If you like the visual images here on my site, now you can bring them home. I'm offering notecards, clothing and mugs with some of the digital artwork I've been posting. Please remember my online store when it's time to shop for a gift. Not only will you have something beautiful to give, but your financial support will help make it possible for me to continue maintaining the site and making music! You would not believe the emotional boost an independent artist like me will get from your purchase!

Click here to listen to the waves of Long Island Sound.

I spent this week on the beautiful beach of Long Island Sound near Madison CT attending the Minister's and Elder's Retreat for New England and New York Yearly Meetings at the Mercy Center. The beautiful spring weather made for a wonderful setting for fellowship. Most of the Friends attending this event were pastors or lay leaders from pastoral meetings in the Religious Society of Friends. This was new for me because I come from a branch of the Quaker tree whose style of worship and theological underpinnings are very different.

Part of my personal journey is to invite diversity and spend time with people who are different from me. So, when Christopher Sammond, general secretary of NYYM, invited me to accompany him as his elder, I was happy for great opportunity to practice that. The Friends were so warm and welcoming that, even though we sometimes had to translate our different usages of Quaker language, I soon felt comfortable and forgot to pay attention to our differences. I especially enjoyed the singing. These Friends love their music! We even had time for an impromptu jam session.

During our free time, I enjoyed exploring the tidal pools along the shore, taking a nap on the beach and recording the waves with my Zoom H4.

Click here to hear 'Callings', music made from bird calls.

I am very lucky to live and work in an extremely beautiful place, a small apartment in a friend's house, overlooking the Hudson River. The Hudson River School artists believed that the beauty of nature is a manifestation of the divine, and living here, I understand.

I've been keeping a list of the bird & mammal species that I have seen from my dining table. Today, I added my 43rd bird when a flock of 9 wild turkeys walked in a line through the woods on my left.

In honor of this diversity of life, here's my list so far:

BIRDS

Black-capped Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Goldfinch
House Finch
Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Downy Woodpecker
White-throated Sparrow
Carolina Wren
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Blue Jay
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Cooper's Hawk
Canada Goose
Ring-billed Herring Gull
Mallard Duck
Black Vulture
Red-tailed Hawk

Indigo Bunting
Eastern Phoebe
Brown Thrasher

House Sparrow
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Catbird
Mockingbird
Crow
Red-winged Blackbird

Bald Eagle
Eastern Bluebird
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Dark-eyed Junco
American Tree Sparrow
House Wren
Broad-winged hawk
European Starling
Song Sparrow
Turkey
Turkey Vulture
Common Grackle
American Redstart added 4/30/2008
Chipping sparrow added 5/6/2008l
Ringed-neck Pheasant added 5/7/2008
Hairy Woodpecker added 5/14/2008
Eastern Kingbird added 6/1/2008


Mammals

Grey Squirrel
Chipmunk
White-tailed Deer
Red Squirrel
Woodchuck
Eastern Cottontail Rabbit
Skunk
Bat

To hear music made from bat, frog & bird sounds, click here.

digital photography
2006, C. Vonn New

"In silence of the mind, in which one is simply aware of what is, without comment, all believers can suspend their opinions and together contemplate reality" Alan Watts

Today,


I


found


a


poem


in


the


driveway.











manipulated digital photography
(c) 2008, Vonn New

There it is!

That elusive glimpse from the edge of vision
feather touch
whispered ghost of intuition
breath of a dream.

We cling to fragments of Truth in
sound, sand, Word, and Body.

Others seem so certain,
but me?

I am the Lover,
reluctant to the scent,

Whistling a remembered scrap of melody I
can’t quite place,

Conjuring a holy dove
from the smudge Your feathers left
on my window this morning.

Where is my faith in uncertainty now?

In the skewed angles of a hasty star
the sweet bite of ginger,
laughter at a death bed.

Listen!
There it is again!

Bird Shadows in the Garden.


(c) 2007, Vonn New

Silence is the infinity that contains all sound.

I used to think of silence as the absence of sound.
And then I started listening to it.
I listened to the spaces between sounds and between words.
Whenever I thought I had found silence, I listened carefully and heard something there.
It's like looking at the night sky.
You may think you are looking at a blank patch of darkness
but if you look through a pair of binoculars, you find points of light,
and if you get a more powerful telescope,
you'll find more stars in what looked like empty space,
and so on.
By listening to silence, you can experience infinity.

Silence - digital photography and text
(c) C. Vonn New, Aug 5, 2006

During the final days of my trip to Florida, I took a road trip to visit family and friends from around the state. Along the way, I had many wonderful encounters with birds. Above, Carole Seibert is feeding sandhill cranes in her backyard in Winter Springs.

This royal tern was part of a large flock right next to our beach towels when Johanna Krynytzky and I spent an afternoon enjoying the surf at St Pete Beach. The wind makes it look like it's having a bad hair day.



This is the semi-tame brown pelican Harry, who winters on the Indian River, demanding breakfast from Jan Fisher in her backyard in Melbourne Beach.







Harry gulps down a fingerling mullet and leaves a deposit of his own in appreciation.










While criscrossing the state, I was supplied with plenty of amusing reading material by Florida's prolific outdoor advertising industry. The most memorable was a billboard near St Cloud with a sort of sexy picture of booted legs in tight jeans that said in huge letters, "Pants!" and then underneath, "Your best protection against STD's and pregnancy. KEEP 'EM ON!!!"

I had a great time with some of musical friends in St Petersburg when I taught a workshop on Rhythmic Improvisation at the Hip Expressions dance studio. Members of the dance & music ensemble Loud Zoo - which I founded in 2000 but have been away from for a couple of years - were in attendance, along with dance performer & instructor Karen Coletti and Native American flute player, Lydia Swystun. We worked through a series of exercises in trios and larger groups to expand the musical palette with variation of sound and articulation, played with some different ways of communicating between the players, and assumed different roles in creating a spontaneous composition. Woo Hoo! It was a blast listening to the jams that the trios came up with. Click here to hear a jam by the whole group.

Click Here to Listen.
I'm currently in Gulfport, FL, serving as "chemo bitch" for my friend Johanna Krynytzky. Readers may be familiar with Jo as a bellydance performer and teacher and as my long-term music and dance collaborator and successor as zookeeper of Loud Zoo. She has been undergoing treatment for breast cancer. I gave myself the temporary title of "chemobitch" which means I'm taking a turn in helping out with soup making, hand holding, dish washing, car driving, witnessing, & whatever else needs doing. It is inspiring to see how much generosity of spirit is surrounding Jo as friends, family, community and care providers all pitch in to make sure she gets the care & support she needs even without health insurance.

On one quiet (ha!) evening at home with Johanna; her fiance, Ken DeShazo, who runs Reliable Handyman Service in St Pete; and Jake, the pitbull, who is the most well-behaved dog I've ever met; I got a nudge to drag out the suitcase full of electronics I carry around with me and set it up in the living room. Patched through the home stereo with a mic for each of us (except the dog), off we went on an impromptu sonic journey. I'm playing electronics and psaltry; Johanna's playing flute, percussion, and voice; and Ken's playing voice & percussion. You can hear Jake in there a little bit, too. I left in the bit of Ken's exuberance because it just makes me smile every time I hear it .